On March 14, 1972 The Godfather premiered at the Lowe's State Theater. The book was a best seller but no one expected much of the movie. Paramount recruited their third choice Italian American director, Frances Ford Coppola and allowed him to cast Marlon Brando who at 47 was considered too old and too difficult (he won the best actor prize), and Al Pacino who had yet to be featured in a film. He rewrote the story into a three hour long Shakespearean tragedy about the New York mafia family, the Corleones that was universally critically praised, garnered multiple Oscars and went on to become No 1 at the box office for the next half year. Today it is still regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time.
